Video: 10 Minute IT Jams - An update from Coevolve

The world of business connectivity is changing fast. Keon Roache, Co-Founder and CTO at Coevolve, knows this better than most. As the digital transformation of enterprises across the globe accelerates, companies like Coevolve are helping to lay down robust, flexible, and secure infrastructure. Roache spoke to Tim & It Jams about where the sector is heading, the challenges enterprises face, and why local expertise still matters in a global business.

Coevolve describes itself as a global provider of telco-independent SD-WAN, Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), and multi-cloud networking solutions for enterprises. Roache said the company's mission remains sharply focused on "helping enterprises achieve their digital transformation initiatives", with a special emphasis on the networking piece. "It is really a very important foundation for any of these big digital projects that mid-size global enterprises are trying to embark on," he explained.

The approach, he noted, is about evolution rather than wholesale replacement. "We provide telco independent SD-WAN and SASE, which really means we can come into these environments, not rip out all of the investment they've made in their infrastructure, but deploy a new network over the top of all of that," he said. The benefits include "better bandwidth, better performance, cost savings and a whole bunch of other benefits that can help enable those users to get better connectivity and better access into their cloud environments."

Since launching the company in 2014, Roache and his team have focused on understanding both new technologies and legacy components, giving them a unique perspective on how to implement "these technologies in there effectively and then support and manage those on an ongoing basis for those clients."

Asked about the company's most recent innovations, Roache was clear that while SD-WAN and SASE are no longer mysterious new acronyms, they are still in the early stages of adoption across many industries. "You could argue in many ways the technologies that we're talking about are new in themselves and we're still at that point in the adoption curve where there's a lot of enterprises that haven't been able to tap into those benefits yet," he said.

But Coevolve is not standing still. Roache described how their long-term clients have come back repeatedly because the services offered have moved forward. "We continue to innovate. We haven't just sat still and kept doing more of the same. We're very focused on what we can do over the top of these technologies," he said. An example is investment in the company's own intelligent technology stack, called Smart Services, and a co-managed service model that lets clients have hands-on access. This, Roache said, means "self-service access into these networks, rapidly make changes, get really quick insights into what's going on in the network."

These extra layers of service, he explained, are needed in a world where the basics are becoming commoditised. "If you can go out and buy SD-WAN from any number of providers and in different delivery models, what can we do over the top to help differentiate?" Roache said. "It's value-add that we're providing back to these clients."

Digital transformation, he added, is different for every firm. "The businesses we're dealing with, mid-size multinationals from a thousand to thirty thousand employees, are all facing a lot of the same challenges. They're having to deal with this very rapid cloud adoption; everything is moving to the cloud, whether it's applications or infrastructure," he said.

Trends such as the shift to hybrid working models and the convergence of networking and security have reshaped the priorities for IT teams. "Enterprises now [need to] give this great user experience even though the user might be in the office today, but at home tomorrow, accessing cloud applications that the enterprise doesn't own but they still get the blame if it's not working well," Roache said.

Security, too, is now part of the connectivity discussion. "We're also seeing a real focus on converging network and security. In the past they were very separated, but now we're seeing a lot more focus on knocking the two together," he added. For many organisations, finding in-house resources skilled enough to tackle these converging challenges is difficult. "Enterprises of the size and scale that we're dealing with often don't have the in-house resources or capabilities to be able to deal with all of those changes concurrently," he said. As a result, Coevolve aims to "offload some of that effort in terms of adopting some of these emerging technologies and next generation technologies to help smooth out some of those models".

That changing landscape is also pushing service providers to offer clients more control and transparency. "People don't want a traditional model where it's completely locked out, the provider doesn't even give them any visibility around what's going on. They want to have a self-service model where they can be more hands-on, be more responsive to the business but also have the safe pair of hands in the background if things go wrong," Roache explained.

Despite being global, Coevolve has always prioritised regional knowledge and presence. With clients in 80 countries and solutions delivered through over 500 telecommunications providers worldwide, their local footprint is significant, especially in the Asia Pacific region. "We've got a very strong set of capabilities in the APAC market - a lot of our team is based in Australia, in Sydney and more recently in Melbourne as well. We've also got a big part of our team based in Malaysia where we do a lot of our operational and client experience functions," Roache said. Since the company's early days, Southeast Asia has been a key market. "A key part of that is that you have to have the resources and the experience in the region to be able to make this a success," he added.

For enterprises wanting to begin or accelerate their digital transformation journey, Roache suggested reaching out directly. "We're present at a lot of industry events and conferences as well, so it's very likely that if you're attending some of those you'll bump into our team," he said. Whether a prospective client is "at the beginning of the journey or they've maybe adopted some of these technologies but want to get more out of it… we're happy to help and we've got the resources and team there to be able to make that a success."

Roache finished with a simple statement of intent: "Thank you very much and I appreciate the opportunity to be here."